Canon 5D Classic....good bang for the buck?

antihero

antihero

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Paul
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After selling all my Fuji gear a few years ago and being in the relative photographic wilderness i'm hankering for another dslr/mirrorless camera....

I realise you get what you pay for but i'm not a wealthy man so like getting good bang for my buck, which leads me to ask;

Is the 5D Classic a steal for the price?

I'm mainly a portrait guy (natural light and OFC) so don't need mega fast focus tracking or loads of focus points. I realise I could get more high ISO capability and other bells and whistles from
other bodies but I really do fancy (having never owned one) a FF body if the price is right. I'd probably just be keeping it simple and sticking a cheap 50mm on it for the time being as this will just be a
hobby camera, nothing too strenuous.

Any Do's or Don'ts when looking for a good used 5Dc?

Any advice would be appreciated

Paul
 
Picked one up recently for my wife to learn on with a nifty fifty. It is a very capable camera, and the somewhat 'low' megapixel count in comparison to more modern cameras is not limiting at all.
 
A former owner here, and I liked it :D apart from the bulk and weight.

I think it all hangs on the price and if you like the old DSLR experience and just want to go for it. If you're open to other things I think something like a Panasonic GX80 (I have one) will very probably give you better image quality but not the ff thin dof.

If you do go for a 5D get used to cleaning the sensor as these things are dust magnets.
 
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I used to shoot Canon a few years ago and had 5Dc , 5D2 and a couple of 5D3s. Personally, I think the 5D2 is a much more sorted camera compared to the 5Dc and I would spend the extra few quid to get one of these. To me, 5Dc is now dated but 5D2 has current levels of performance.
 
Produces a nice photo, but is very dated, out of all my Canon gear it was the last to go, but the MkII is a better bet.

Screen is poor especially the early ones with a green tint and no live view, mirror detaching problem, but ok if still a free fix from Canon.
No sensor clean and boy do they get dusty, again ok if you are happy sensor cleaning yourself.
Only really good on the centre AF point, others not so great, overall just a bit long in the tooth.

Saying all that its still capable of great results, but be aware of its shortcomings
 
I almost went this route a couple of years ago but everyone says that a 6D is better that a 5D mark ii.

I use to be canon from the start but 2 years ago i moved to nikon and i find the results much nicer. Canon was full of colour noise and really bad at pushing shadows.
Nikon, sony, fuji all do better that canon.
 
Lemaildetom said:
I almost went this route a couple of years ago but everyone says that a 6D is better that a 5D mark ii.

I use to be canon from the start but 2 years ago i moved to nikon and i find the results much nicer. Canon was full of colour noise and really bad at pushing shadows.
Nikon, sony, fuji all do better that canon.
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Tbh... I absolutely adored my fujis before I sold up a few years ago but having never used ff digital I just fancied having a bash as cheap as possible and take it from there...
 
woof woof said:
A former owner here, and I liked it :D apart from the bulk and weight.

I think it all hangs on the price and if you like the old DSLR experience and just want to go for it. If you're open to other things I think something like a Panasonic GX80 (I have one) will very probably give you better image quality but not the ff thin dof.

If you do go for a 5D get used to cleaning the sensor as these things are dust magnets.
Click to expand...

Which led me to selling mine as I just couldnt be doing with the hassle :-(
 
Donnie said:
Which led me to selling mine as I just couldnt be doing with the hassle :-(
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Mine was never that bad and I seriously miss the old thing, then again I like vinyl records and B&W film :)
Matt
 
dont get me wrong I loved it, was always a canon man but the sensor dust issue aggravated me and probably coincided with / contributed to my losing my mojo so sold the lot and slowly eased back in with a pocket fuji, then an entry mirrorless and now finally an EM1 and pro lens set up again.
 
pretty solid camera but for legacy kit, I had gear envy of the D700 and have heard lots of people who preferred them to the later D800 for 'feel' of the images
 
Donnie said:
dont get me wrong I loved it, was always a canon man but the sensor dust issue aggravated me and probably coincided with / contributed to my losing my mojo so sold the lot and slowly eased back in with a pocket fuji, then an entry mirrorless and now finally an EM1 and pro lens set up again.
Click to expand...

I used to test mine before going out for the day by shooting a series of shots of white door from minimum aperture and opening up. If it needed cleaning I'd do it and then head off out and I'd test it again when I came home. Sometimes I'd clean the camera before going out and again when I got home and the next time I tested it it would require cleaning again! :D

I remember when I came back from a holiday in Kazakhstan, I opened the raws on my pc and although the first few were clean the dust bunnies soon appeared in shots as wide as f8. Sitting there cloning dust bunnies out of hundreds of shots does tend to take the enjoyment out of things. To be honest though that wasn't why I moved away from DSLR's, I moved because of the bulk and weight and the attention that DSLR's can generate. I find the less intrusive and less in your face CSC's suit me much better.
 
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